Judith Arnold

Barbara Keiler (born April 7, 1953), known by her pen name Judith Arnold, is an American author of crime fiction and over eighty-five romance novels. She has been writing since 1983, and has also been published under the pen names Ariel Berk and Thea Frederick. She then spent the next ten years writing plays for production in regional theaters around the country.

Keiler married after her husband obtained his Ph.D. at Brown University. They have two sons and live in suburban Boston, Massachusetts.

Writing career After taking a year off teaching to try to write a novel, she sold a romance novel, Silent Beginnings, to Silhouette Books, in October 1983.

Since then, Keiler has written over 100 novels. These have been published in category romance lines such as Silhouette (writing as Ariel Berk), Keiler has been a finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA Award and the Golden Medallion Award, and was nominated for the RWA's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Class action suit In July 2012 Keiler, along with two other named plaintiffs representing approximately 1000 authors, filed a class action suit, Barbara Keiler v. Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 12cv5558, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan), against HQ Enterprises, alleging improper payment of e-book royalties. The case was dismissed in April 2013 by Harold Baer Jr. but was accepted on appeal in 2014. The parties agreed to settle in March 2016 and a $4.1M settlement was approved by William H. Pauley III in July 2016.